Summer strike threat following teachers' walk out warning

Pupils and parents face summer disruption in schools following a vote by teachers to walk out in their bitter battle with the Government.

Teachers have vowed to "step up" strike action, starting with a summer walkout.

The annual conference of the National Union of Teachers overwhelmingly backed a motion calling on the union to co-ordinate strike action in the week beginning Monday, June 23 if "significant" progress is not made in the long-running dispute.

Union leaders have not ruled out more strikes and have also left the door open for further action in the autumn in the dispute over pay, pensions and conditions.

The move, which has been condemned by the Department for Education (DfE), leaves hundreds of thousands of schoolchildren across England and Wales facing the prospect of school closures and disruption to lessons.

Anne Lemon, of the NUT’s executive, told delegates that the resolution did not exclude the NUT from taking strike action with other trade unions.

She said: “One choice is that we give up. The second choice is that we step up. Our members are for stepping up.”

Afterward the vote delegates stood for several minutes cheering and chanting and calling for Education Secretary Michael Gove to quit.

The vote comes the day after another teaching union, the NASUWT, agreed to continue its campaign of industrial action, warning it is willing to call its members out on strike if necessary.